Yesterday afternoon, the world was gripped by a UFO panic when pictures of a mysterious spiraling blue light in the skies over Norway appeared online, followed by video of the phenomenon in action. Norway might be used to the Northern Lights, but this was no natural occurrence; indeed it turned out to be a failed Russian missile launch. So where did this all go down, exactly?

It's reported that the missile, an ICBM ""Bulava" missile, was test-fired from a Russian submarine in the White Sea just east of Scandinavia. Why they chose to do this with Obama in town in Oslo is not clear, but needless to sayScandinavia has been on alert.

The failed launch resulted in the rocket's falling back down to earth, with its fuel and debris shooting out and causing the glowing spiral. Most photos of the strange early morning lights came from locals around the north Norwegian areas of Alta and Borras.

The exceedingly lively, occasionally credible UK tabloid The Sun says a UFO knocked the blade off a wind turbine in Lincolnshire County in England. "Dozens" of witnesses saw flashing orange and yellow lights in the sky the evening before the 290-foot-high structure was mangled, including one woman who lives just a half-mile from the crash site:

The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.

My husband Stephen was woken at 4 am by the bang.

While the Sun had the first report, the Guardian came up with at least an explanation for all the flashing lights:

Those mysterious lights were actually the fireworks [Guardian employee] Emily [Bell]'s brother Tim had bought at the local garden centre for the 80th birthday party of dad Peter Bell.

But what other-worldy creature snatched the still-missing 65-foot turbine blade? British UFOlogists are already working the case; the Ministry of Defense has no explanation. Consider this one added to our UFO Travel Map.

A few days before Britain released a batch of UFO files, a mysterious object was seen over the skies of Ajdovčina, Slovenia. Our Slovene isn't too good, but in-the-know blog Piran Café summarizes what this news anchor has to say:

The person who sent this video footage to POP TV of the October 14 sighting also reported electrical and mobile phone power outages in the western city of Ajdovčina and nearby villages. In this report the anchor said the reports couldn't be confirmed.

The footage does seem a little suspicious, leading us to think it's a hoax, but, hey, that's why they call them "unidentified flying objects."

The UK's National Archives released a new batch of files about UFOs today, and despite our obsession with places tied to mysterious aerial activity, it seems the best place to spot unidentified aircraft is from commercial jets.

Four passengers headed from Gatwick to Hamburg in 1991 reported a cigar-shaped craft flying beneath their plane to the captain though the mystery of what it might've been was never solved. That same year, a pair of Alitalia pilots also spotted a UFO over Kent; British authorities determined it couldn't have been a missile--but also had no guess as to what it might've been.

Another UFO near Gatwick came so close to the airport that air traffic controllers warned a plane out of its way, though that pilot didn't report seeing anything unusual. In the next four years, Britain plans to release almost 200 more files on UFO sightings, insuring that the UK will remain a top-of-the-list destination for conspiracy theorists.

Five miners in the Northern Territory of Australia say they spotted a UFO last week. In the early evening, worker Arnold Murray noticed a light silently flying towards his work site and alerted his coworkers as the object swooped in:

The plant's pretty quiet at night. (It made) no noise whatsoever...All of a sudden it shot off and left a long orange trail behind it. That orange trail just faded out like a shooting star.

It wasn't a chopper, it wasn't a plane--we knew that much--and it definitely wasn't a shooting star.

Interestingly, the mine is on Groote Eylandt, close to where Australia's most famous UFO sighting was recorded. In 1964, the "light wheel" appeared off the coast of the island, causing a ship's compass to malfunction as a rotating circle of lights descended from the sky.

No, this isn't a famous UFO sighting. Instead, many years ago, some crazy architects decided to build a UFO house in Signal Mountain, TN, near Chattanooga.

In these hard times it is no surprise that the flying saucer house was recently put up for auction. But the fact that the three bedroom home couldn't fetch more than $135,000 is a bit of a surprise. The auction winner and new UFO resident is said to have bought the place as a second home.

The crazy thing? There are more of these UFO style homes peppered throughout the country. But where are they? Get out and find 'em, because the truth is out there.

The History Channel has a new HDTV series airing every Wednesday called UFO Hunters, which is spin-off from the channel's one-time show by the same name.

The premise is simple--follow a bunch of UFO Hunters (including Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO Magazine) around the world and see what they come up with.

Together, they use eyewitness accounts, scientific experimentation, documents recently released through the Freedom of Information Act and footage that has never been seen before on television to piece together compelling--and at times chilling--evidence of UFO phenomena.

A lot of what this show does is to separate the bogus UFO sighting claims from the real. That, and try to scare you into thinking at anytime in your life, anywhere, you might be abducted.

For instance, the next time you go scuba-diving, UFOs might have already set up shop on the ocean floor. Or so the promo for the next episode wants you to think. And their final tagline doesn't do anything to ease your fears: "Are they waiting for us?"

The locals in Wycliffe Well are divided when it comes to the sightings in Australia's self-proclaimed UFO capital. While some believe the area's gas station is a preferred hangout for aliens, others chalk it up to booze. The skeptics argument? Most of the sightings have been reported by people exiting the local pub late at night, after guzzling a beer or 12.

But while it may have something to do with high levels of alcohol consumption, some claim the extraterrestrial visitors just prefer the Northern Territory. The owner of the saloon has even racked up a half dozen sightings on his own:

When I came down here it was just a common occurrence. It was just one of those things. Even the previous owner just mentioned it to me in passing.

Today, the gas station props up statues of green-colored aliens along the roadway, hoping to catch the eye of motorists and tourists making the long drive from Alice Springs to Darwin. When it comes to the real thing, though, locals say they "hardly even blink when they see it." The tiny town, which is isolated and surrounded by scrubland, has garnered significant attention from the UFO community, attracting "experts" and even a couple UFO conventions.

Drunk or not, we'd love to pull up in a barstool next to a local and hear some UFO stories.

Over twenty Stephenville residents, including a pilot, allege they recently saw a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast over their town. Some folks even claim a fighter jet was chasing it.

The pilot witness had this to say:

People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times. It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no aircraft from his base were in the area recently, however, he is "90% sure" this sighting was an airliner.

So say for a minute, just a minute, that 10% ruled the day. What exactly were aliens looking for in Stephenville? Could have been Jewel, who filmed a music video there, or, if you are more into doomsday theories, these aliens could have been looking for the KKK, who held a rally in Stephenville last summer. However, our hope is that these alleged aliens were simply looking for some good BBQ, which can be found over at Hard Eight in Stephenville.

UFO fanatics shouldn't get their hopes up just yet about the sighting in western Prince Edward Island on December 26. It's not a flying saucer; just a trail of what appears to be dark smoke. PEI couple Tony and Marie Quigley videotaped the UFO for six minutes but told the Ottawa Citizen the sighting lasted about 30 minutes.

While the Quigley's say they have no suspicions that the UFO was a sign of alien life, some neighbors have their own ideas. Gertrude Campbell, 65, also saw the UFO and told the paper:

I swear when I come (home) at night time and I look at some of those stars and they're pretty big, I'd say that's what's looking over us.

A more logical explanation of the sighting? Don Ledger, UFO researcher and author from Nova Scotia, told the Citizen that what the Quigley's saw could be connected to the December 2007 launch of NASA's Atlas rocket. He thinks the dark trail is debris from Atlas' launch, but, in true UFO fashion, can't prove it. We prefer Tony Quigley's no-nonsense explanation:

This is definitely unidentified... But if you're talking Martians or anything like that, I haven't seen any to date, so I can't say I really believe in them.

PEI now joins Nova Scotia in the ranks of Canadian islands with UFO history. The Shag Harbor community in Nova Scotia still takes steps to observe the anniversary of the town's UFO sighting: a yellow light bobbing along the surface of the water.

It's official, says a leaked government report. A bunch of unexplained fires three years ago in the northern Sicily town of Canneto di Caronia were caused by aliens.

A $2 million investigation involving experts--including a NASA scientist--has been looking into the incidents. At the time, household objects across the village were bursting into flames, including a pile of wedding presents, furniture and appliances.

If you travel to Canneto di Caronia today, you probably won't see any more exploding chairs, but who knows when the aliens the government says are responsible will return. For the record, Sicily's civil protection boss said they don't suspect little green men, as such; just "unnatural forces" with a whole lot of energy. Sounds like aliens to us.

If you want to increase your chances of spotting a UFO when you're traveling Down Under, apparently the northeastern state of Queensland is the place to try.

Of the 128 official UFO sightings recorded in Australia in the past two years, over 100 of them--almost 80%--have been in Queensland. Where exactly in Queensland you travel is not so important, with sightings occurring as far and wide as Toowoomba and the Glasshouse Mountains and right up to the far north. What should you look for in a Queensland UFO? According to the experts:

The most common sightings are the orange balls, and white balls that look like stars but move and display very erratic behavior, like they'll make right-hand turns.

Of course, we know you'll tell us if you see any orange ball in Queensland, or indeed a ball of any color.